The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi and its counterparts in other areas of the country are to be positioned on the front line in the fight against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The premier facility has been requested by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to dedicate a portion of […]
Uttarakhand
Road traffic accidents take a toll
Research published at the end of last year spotlighted the leading cause of premature mortality among young men in India: road traffic accidents. In 2017, 2.2 lakh Indians lost their lives due to injuries sustained on the country’s roads. Males accounted for the overwhelming majority of such fatalities, with 77 percent of road traffic accident […]
Medical waste pollution gets a Rs 50,000 price tag in Nainital
To address the issue of medical waste pollution, a fine of Rs 50,000 will be imposed in Nainital. The announcement came from Nainital district magistrate Savin Bansal following the dumping of medical waste near Naini lake earlier this month, for which a medical shop was forced closed by the district administration whilst two others were […]
Recycling plastic into diesel: A novel approach
Recycling is one of the main ways we are encouraged to limit our output of plastic waste. In Dehradun, the Council of Scientific Research’s Indian Institute of Petroleum (CSIR-IIP) is taking a somewhat novel approach to the practice by converting plastic waste into diesel oil. A plant for this purpose has been established at the […]
More hospitals de-empanelled from Ayushman Bharat
More hospitals have been de-empanelled from Ayushman Bharat in Gujarat, bringing to light one of the major issues plaguing the implementation of the government’s flagship healthcare scheme. The state health department “urgently” issued an order barring two hospitals in Rajkot and one in the state capital Ahmedabad from providing services to beneficiaries of both the […]
The district highlighting India’s sex ratio problem
A district in Uttarakhand reflects a broader issue concerning India’s sex ratio, according to a recent report in The Times of India. In 132 of the Uttarkashi district’s villages, not a single girl was born in three months out of 216 deliveries. The concerning figures, collected from the state health department, potentially cast a spotlight […]
The Auli VIP Wedding is over. Who will manage the waste crisis?
The picturesque hill station of Auli in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand is battling the aftereffects of a grand Indian wedding. Weeklong celebrations have turned the town into a dump yard with forty quintal (4,000 kilograms) of garbage. The town is paying the price for wedding grandeur worth Rs 200 crore. After the wedding celebrations […]
Amid accelerated Himalayan ice loss, a wedding celebration
Ice loss is occurring at a rapid pace as the Himalayas have been melting at double the rate since the turn of the century, a new study has revealed in another warning signal for India’s climate change crisis. The American Association of Advancement of Science study, titled “Acceleration of ice loss across the Himalayas over […]
AIIMS Rishikesh in controversy over HIV misdiagnosis
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand has found itself at the centre of controversy after it falsely diagnosed a patient with HIV. The consumer forum in Haridwar imposed a fine of Rs 60,000 on the institute following a complaint lodged by Naseem Ali in January 2015. The previous year, Ali […]
Unpaid dues could cost patients dialysis
Two Uttarakhand clinics providing free treatment for kidney disease face the loss of their dialysis machines – leaving patients in the lurch. NephroPlus, a kidney care chain, has said it will cancel dialysis services for two clinics in the state effective from March 23rd. This is unless past due payments totalling Rs 6.5 crore (US$947,152) […]